Please discuss the Motorcycle.com article Road Rage and You in our Motorcycle Forums below. Use the reply button to let others know your comments or feedback on the article. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, along with your thoughts and personal opinions on the bikes and products we have tested.

alapkd

07-12-2008 07:08 AM

very sensible and honest article hope everybody reads it and hope i think about everything he mentioned when I am on the road whether on motorcycle or in my suv.

mscuddy

07-12-2008 10:55 AM

Yep, happened to me. Tooling down the road on my year old XB9SX, when Vaha Garabekian got mad because I was splitting lanes, and rear ended me going about sixty in his suv. I was going about 35 at the time, and spent 8 months in the hospital, now a paraplegic T-12 complete injury. Garabekian got a $350.00 ticket, and fled back to his native Armenia. The whitnesses said they saw him speed up, swerve around two cars and aimed his SUV at me from behind. I didn't know what hit me. 35 years of street riding shot to hell by one a hole. The Burbank cops couldn't proove that he did it on purpose, and he walked. So now I sit in my chair and hear my old DT2 go by every now and then, and wonder, was it worth it? I have some great memories of riding and racing dirt bikes, and am thankful for that. But I really should have canned the street bike stuff, way too dangerous anymore. A side note, the weekend before I was a Newcomb's Ranch in Angeles Crest, and someone took my picture with a camera phone, so that curse held true for me...

vermicious

07-12-2008 12:29 PM

It's always scariest when they do that crap without obvious or deliberate provocation. I try to avoid pissing off other drivers whether I'm on the bike or in the car but there are plenty of psychopaths out there just looking for a situation to get pissed off about.

sarnali2

07-12-2008 02:40 PM

That's the hell of it, you never know when you tripped some bozo's trigger. I like to think I got all my ass-hole aggressive behaviour on a bike out of my system years ago and I think for the most part I don't aggrivate my fellow road users and can just let it go when some cager pulls a sh*tter on me. Trouble is you never know how tight your fellow motorists springs are, sometimes it doesn't take much to set them off.

I guess the old ride like you're invisible and try to never put yourself in a position they can hurt you is still valid, unfortunatelyt some times your just in the wrong place at the right time like Bro Cuddy..

Kenneth_Moore

07-12-2008 03:08 PM

Since this article is 2 years old, and the accident some 4 years ago, I thought it would be interesting to see what came of the "Fournier trial for vehicular manslaughter." A quick Google later, I learned that the trial has just finished, and Fournier is awaiting sentencing!

"A jury convicted Fournier on vehicular manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon in the 2004 death of Eric “Sunglasses Rick” Stern, 54, a motorcyclist who rammed into the back of Fournier’s SUV after Fournier apparently jammed on his brakes."

Those are the charges typically given to someone who is DUI and causes a death, and aren't nearly as serious as the original charges. Apparently during the trial process, Fournier plead not guilty on account'a because he's crazy.

Reading the details of this case reminds me of how I laugh at the movies where evil motorcyclists attack helpless victims in cars. Even fairly "serious" movies have scenes with this ridiculous premise. A car might as well be an M1-A1 Battle Tank when matched against a bike, and I mean any bike. I'm always annoying my kid by yelling at the helpless car drivers to "swerve over and crush the guy!"

Matt, I had no idea your accident was due to ill intent. I've been reading snippets about it for years, but the fact that the guy went out of his way to crush you escaped me until now. I thought it was a case of a cager yapping on the cell phone and plowing into you due to inattention. That puts a whole new light on the thing...
being stupid and pulling a stunt like that is bad, doing it on purpose deserves life in prison as far as I'm concerned. I wonder what the Russian Mob would charge for a visit to that scumbag...do they take PayPal?

sachiwilson

07-12-2008 03:13 PM

In CA, there's no vehicular assault law. There's vehicular homicide, but nothing that covers similar assaults with a car. So, someone who purposely runs into another person can be charged only with "regular" assault, which requires proof of an intent to injure.

Vehicular assault laws generally permit a driver to be charged if he or she acts with gross negligence or recklessness. You don't need to prove intent to injure; all you need to prove is that the driver was reckless (or grossly negligent, which is a bit easier.) If CA had had a vehicular assault law, the idjit that hit Cuddy would still be in the slammer.

mscuddy

07-12-2008 03:21 PM

Yeah, after a while, you feel un-breakable. Immortal. Cars were just a thing to "get around". As long as I kept moving forward, it was OK. I swear, in all that time riding (about every day since 1971)on the streets of Los Angeles, I only went over a car's hood once, when I did the Burbank-El Segundo route on an XL600.

Could make it to Inglewood from Burbank in 30 minutes on my YZ490 with the plate. Was fun to ditch motorcycle cops, just squirt, squirt...and you're two blocks away, around the next corner. That's the secret, to disappear. They compare the acceleration of an open class motorcrosser to an F1 car. That YZ was no slouch.

Miss it shipmate.

mscuddy

07-12-2008 04:13 PM

Nah, Kenneth, they got a new kida Mob here in Burbank, and yes, they're from Russia. God knows I'm no racist, but when they let the underworld of the former Soviet Union into So Cal, specifcally my old neighborhood, Glendale it's insanity time.

This is the second time I've been screwed by this group, the last time Metropolitan Mortuary Transport plowed into the back of my pristine frame-off resto '67VW Beetle with an 1835, dual 40 DelOrtos, 120 Engle, ratio rockers, 35.5 /40 heads, counterballanced crank, etc. Destroyed it. Hit me right on the crankshaft nut at about 50 mph, as I'm slowing to a stop for a traffic jam.

Turns out the van that hit me was registered to a PO box in Modesto, the guys who owend the PO Box was some Gangster who lived in Arcadia. Malik Gaboodian/aka Alex Macias/Alex Alaya. I had uncovered a nest of crooks in the corpse transport industry, it was like an old Raymond Chandler pulp story. You wouldn't believe what the guy was getting away with, under his assumed allias'. I posed as an inspector from the Public Utilities Comission, turned it all over to the Arcadia DA, Never heard a thing.

Use to get death threats on the phone from these crooks. Good thing I was armed to the teeth most of the time...

Oh well. Where's that shot glass...?

Then there was this time me and Barney Oldfield...

pdad13

07-12-2008 09:37 PM

God, Matt, I didn't know that your "accident" was actually a willful act by this human garbage. I can't tell you how sorry I am that it happened at all, much less that way.

I actually had a pretty bad rage episode last week when some d*uche-bag limo driver passed me in the same lane, about four inches away from me, only to tailgate a slow driver that was ahead of me. Unfortunately, we were headed to almost exactly the place and when I saw him I went nuts. Almost laid him out right there. Lots of yelling, profanity and arguing ensued. It was quite a scene. The a*sshole actually tried to claim I cut him off! I finally gave him a verbal parting shot and just walked away.

Funny thing is today, the EXACT same thing happens, only this time the offender was a freaking 70-year-old woman! I thought it through and decided that if I had the opportunity to pull up next to her a stoplight, I would (seriously) politely explain why what she did was illegal, inconsiderate and highly dangerous.

Then I nixed that idea because I'd probably pop off if she didn't respond well. I didn't need to be spied berating an old woman. But I'm pretty sure I would have been able to take her if things got physical.

We use cookies to improve your experience on this website and so that ads you see online can be tailored to your online browsing interests.
We use data about you for a number of purposes explained in the links below. By continuing to browse our site you agree to our use of data and cookies.
Tell me more |
Cookie Preferences